


Forgiven

by captainhurricane



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Heavy Angst, Hugs, M/M, Mentions of Other Voltron Paladins, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 20:36:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14172906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainhurricane/pseuds/captainhurricane
Summary: The paladins make a mistake. Someone always pays for it.





	Forgiven

**Author's Note:**

> because a certain discord server is the way it is..

 

They have a plan. There is a whole Galra fleet just waiting to be blown to pieces, approaching one of the Voltron’s allied planets, oblivious to the fact that they are expected. The Paladins have a plan, a trap set for this fleet and they are going straight into it. Pidge has hacked into the communications, listens on the Galra chatter, she’s the one who mostly came up with this whole thing.

“It’s just soldiers and sentries,” she says. And that’s what she believes as she hears nothing else of the sort in her communications, just this latest commander of the Empire boasting about new slaves, new planets to conquer for the glory of the Empire.

Divert the fleet’s attention from the helpless planet. Then engage. Then destroy. There can be nothing left of conquerors and oppressors. For the good of the universe, right?

The Paladins are all back to their original Lions: there’s Lance, gently stroking Blue’s seat before smirking and leaning onwards. There’s Keith, smiling a private smile when he listens to Red purring pleased around him, inside him. There’s Shiro, in the seat only for him, strong as ever, Black’s soul and his soul combined.

They are one, the Paladins and their Lions and soon enough the Galra fleet realizes it.

Shiro barks orders from the front, diving sharply with Black towards the flag ship: Pidge zooms out of sight, only to appear through the flag ship’s hull, her whoop of triumph echoing in their inner communications. There’s Hunk and Yellow, smashing themselves straight into one of the smaller ones and barely getting a scratch from exploding shrapnel.

“Keith!” Shiro sees it all from his cockpit: all the flickering lights, his fellow  Paladins grimacing and shouting. There’s Keith, as he should be, right beside them- right beside Shiro. Shiro steels himself.

“Yes?” Keith and Red are floating a little further away, assessing the situation.

“That ship over there!” Black nudges Red towards it, Shiro watches Keith’s eyebrows lift, his lips quirking up.

“Blow it up?”

Shiro huffs. “You know it.”

Keith smirks, his joy at being inside his Lion, beside his fellow Paladins so evident that Shiro is dangerously distracted. “Yes, sir,” purrs Keith and he’s off.

The space is burning with explosions, the stars calmly watching as the fleet is utterly decimated by five robotic Lions. They’re working better together than they have worked in forever, every single one of Shiro’s orders calmly and surely executed, their inner chatter kept to a minimum.

Shiro is sweating hard under his armour when he orders them to start making their way back down to the planet.

But then Pidge makes an odd noise.

“Pidge? Everything okay?” Shiro frowns, taps his control panel to see her.

Her eyes are very wide beneath her helmet. Her cheeks are flushed with exertion but to Shiro, she still looks pale.

“I- uh- wait, stop. Stop all of you. You need to hear this.” Her voice is tight, so pained. Her gaze flicks towards Keith’s screen instantly.

All five Lions float in their spots, patiently waiting for their Paladins to do what they need to do.

“I-I-“ Pidge’s voice trembles. “I was right that it was mostly soldiers and sentries, there was-“ her jaw tightens.

Hunk looks worried. Even Lance is silent.

“There was what?” Snaps Keith, his visor off too, his eyes gone dark.

The bottom of Shiro’s stomach drops when  Pidge shares what she had heard through her communications, through the last reports she had gotten from these Galra.

The last ship blown up, that big one at the edge with a fearsome railgun that Keith had decimated easily - the one that Shiro had ordered Keith to blow up - hadn’t been full of soldiers. It had been full of sentries.

And _prisoners._

Utter silence fills the cockpit of each Lion, all eyes turning from Shiro to Keith and back to Shiro. Keith’s eyes are very wide. Shiro opens and closes his mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Pidge whispers. “I was so sure. I’ve always been right before in this, there’s- there’s usually always something- maybe they were just trying to keep them quiet or-“ her voice fades when the little window into Red’s cockpit vanishes.

“I’ll. I’ll talk to him guys,” Shiro says, squeezing his eyes closed for a second. “Just go back.”

“But Shiro-“

“Go back!”

And they go. Even Pidge, whose eyes are prickling with sudden tears. Shiro keeps his own eyes closed for a moment, taking a few deep breaths. He should have asked how many prisoners. The ship had been almost as big as the flagship. Easily carrying dozens. And dozens. That’s not the Galra way, usually it’s easy to tell their prison ships from the other ones, usually there is some report, one loose-tongued Galra commander- but this time everything had been utterly silent.

They had been so sure.

Shiro flicks a few buttons of the control panel. Red’s cockpit flicks into view, the sounds Keith is making coming into Shiro’s ears.

“Hey, buddy,” Shiro whispers.

Keith has taken off his helmet, has hidden his face behind his hands. His shoulders are shaking.

Something horribly painful twists inside Shiro. “Keith,” he tries again. “Hey, buddy. The others have gone ahead. It’s just us now. It’s going to be okay.” He leans onwards, Black hums inside of his mind, her concern over him hurting him more than comforting him. They did this. They did this together.

The last time Shiro heard and saw Keith cry was all those long months and months ago on the launch pad, right near the Kerberos-rocket. It had been a few silent tears then than Keith had wiped away quickly.

Never has Shiro seen Keith quite like this: defeated. Never has Shiro heard him sob like this. It’s like he had held back until the others were out of hearing range.

Shiro swallows hard, his hands curling into fists. He should have checked. He should have known. He should have known. He watches and listens, helpless to the sound of Keith’s tears.

“We’re going back, buddy,” Shiro whispers. “I’m taking you and Red back. Tell her that, alright? Me and Black are going to take you back.” Shiro’s throat is tight. He knows he’s gripping the controls too hard. There is an ashen taste in his mouth.

Keith sobs.

It’s the worst sound in the world and Shiro never wants to hear it again.

He makes Black shift and she does it easily, like reading his mind and knowing what to do. She gives Red a nudge and then clamps her jaws around Red’s mid-section. Then they’re off, down towards the planet and towards the knowledge that they had killed an invading force- but also unknowingly killed who knows how many prisoners.

Shiro watches Keith’s bowed shoulders, that gut-wrenching sound of his crying.

“It’s okay, buddy. It’s okay, Keith, it’s okay,” Shiro keeps whispering. “I’m here. I’m here.”  He keeps saying  it, saying anything the whole way down.

Black puts Red down at her hangar and then leaves for her own. Shiro’s throat is still tight, his fingers gripping the controls so hard they ache when he finally lets go. For a moment, once he’s finally in his own hangar, he stops and closes his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he says but doesn’t quite know to whom. To himself? To Black? To the prisoners who hadn’t deserved it?

To Keith, who Shiro had ordered?

With a long, drawn-out sigh, Shiro gets up and pats the inside of the cockpit, murmuring a goodbye to Black. Her presence is warm in his mind and vanishes when he steps out of her and into the empty hangar. He takes off his helmet and carries it under his arm, all the way to Red’s hangar.

Only to see a gleaming blue forcefield around her, the Lion itself sitting upright.

Oh no. Shiro leaves his helmet behind, approaching her. Had she closed herself off because of Keith’s distress?

“Hey, Red.”

Her eyes stay a glassy grey. The forcefield hums.

“I know you’re probably just protecting him. I know you are. And you’re the best girl for the job,” Shiro continues to whisper. He stays at an arm’s length from the forcefield an stares up at the Lion. “And I’m very happy Keith has someone looking out for him this way. You know that, right?” Shiro sighs. “Could I see him, please? I promise, I’m not going to be angry at him. He only did what was ordered. And I know it, we all know it. Please? Please, Red? Can you please let me see him? I know you feel what he feels and I know he’s hurting. I just want to tell him I don’t blame him. Please?”

For a moment he stares up, up, up at the Lion and she doesn’t move. Then the forcefield vanishes in a blink of an eye and she begins to move, lowering herself all the way down. Her jaws open.

“Thank you,” Shiro says and pats her metallic teeth on his way in.

“Keith?” He calls out instantly, keeping his voice as level as possible. He barely has the time to react before he gets an armful of Paladin, sending both of them sprawling to the floor. Shiro takes the brunt of the impact, instantly wrapping his arms tight around Keith. Keith’s sob have lessened and now he’s crying silently. He buries his face against Shiro’s neck.

“I’m sorry, I-I-,” is all he says, his voice quivering.

“I’m here, Keith,” Shiro whispers back, burying his nose into Keith’s hair and giving it a little kiss. “I’m here. I’m here. You are forgiven. Oh, Keith.” They stay like that for a long while, embracing, Red gone still and dark around them. Only once Keith finally quiets down Shiro opens his eyes.

“Buddy? Do you want to go back to your room?”

Keith doesn’t show his face. He nods. He stands up to clearly trembling legs and slumps against Shiro when Shiro stands up too. Shiro sighs. He only hesitates for a moment before lifting Keith into his arms, armour and all. Keith’s arms wrap around his neck instantly.

“I’ll take you,” Shiro says, rather uselessly. “Just hold onto me.” And Keith does. His breathing is rough and hot against Shiro’s neck but he’s light, he’s so light. Shiro carries him gladly through the still and dark corridors to Keith’s room. Getting it open with an armful of Keith isn’t an easy task but Shiro manages.

“Okay, okay, we’re here now. Do you need help getting that armour off?” He lays Keith on the bed. Keith’s head is slumped.

“We had a plan,” Keith whispers, his voice sandpaper-rough.

Shiro’s heart twists. He has to look away for a moment. He nods. “Y-yeah we did, buddy. It was everyone’s mistake. Mostly mine.” He sits down next to Keith on the bed, armour and all.

Keith gives a shaky exhale. “But I was the one-“

“I gave you the order,” Shiro says. He takes off his gloves and then takes Keith’s hands into his own, pulling off Keith’s gloves as well. “I failed in my own duty. It is your first mission since coming back and this happens. I’m so sorry, Keith.” Keith’s hands are so pale and slender against Shiro’s own.

Keith sniffles. “Pidge’s intel is usually never wrong.”

“No, it isn’t.” Shiro rubs Keith’s hands. Then shifts to start pulling off Keith’s armour, starting with the chest piece. “But it was bound to happen at some point. I am so sorry, Keith.”

“Not your fault,” Keith murmurs. He lifts his arms when prompted but still doesn’t lift his gaze. He lets himself be stripped off his armour until only his undersuit remains.

“It is,” Shiro insists. He sits back down and wraps his arm around Keith’s shoulders. “Let me take responsibility.”  He presses a kiss to Keith’s sweaty temple and sighs deeply. Touching Keith’s cheek, he gently makes Keith finally lift his gaze. Keith’s dark eyes are so full of hurt that Shiro’s chest goes tight.

“Keith,” Shiro says. “You are forgiven, alright? You are forgiven.” He presses a kiss to Keith’s forehead.

Keith makes a choked, pained noise and hides his face again.

Shiro sighs. “I’m staying over in your room, alright?” When Keith nods and stifles a sob, Shiro begins to strip his armour off too. He lets all the pieces drop to the floor, black joining red and then pulls Keith up from the bed. “Come on, let’s go take a bath. I’ll wash you.” Despite his words, he doesn’t pull them towards the bathroom, merely wraps his arms tightly around Keith. Now that it’s just the two of them, tension is melting off both of them. Keith is shaking, gripping Shiro tightly. Shiro rubs his back, giving him tiny kisses to his hair, to his forehead, wherever he can reach.

“You’re doing good, baby, you are. You are forgiven. And I’m here, I’ll never leave you again.”

 


End file.
